NACA flight 1. Familiarization. Walker attained mach 1.45 at 13725 m. Noted severe aileron buzz at mach 0.90 to 0.92.

Launched on 1956 NRL Cruise Launch Point 4 - Latitude: 29.72 N, Longitude:121.53 W.

NASA selected Western Electric Co. to build worldwide network of tracking and ground instrument stations to be used in Project Mercury.

Negotiations for construction of the Mercury tracking network were started with the Western Electric Company and their subcontractors (Bendix Aviation, International Business Machines, Bell Telephone Laboratories, and Burns and Roe), and a letter contract was signed on July 30, 1959, for the entire range. This included radar tracking; telemetry receiving, recording, and display; communications to both the spacecraft and surface stations; and the computing and control facilities.

The Large Launch Vehicle Planning Group, established on July 7, 1961, began its formal existence with seven DOD and seven NASA members and alternates. - Additional details.

NASA Administrator James E. Webb announced that the Mission Control Center for future manned space flights would be located at MSC. The Center would be operational in time for Gemini rendezvous flights in 1964 and later Apollo lunar missions. The overriding factor in the choice of MSC was the existing location of the Apollo Spacecraft Project Office, the astronauts, and Flight Operations Division at Houston.

Keldysh issues a letter listing the scientific objectives for spaceflights in 1964:

• Photograph on marked film the earth and its atmosphere, the surfaces of the moon and planets,
• Observe the zodiacal light via photometer
• Conduct spectrographic analysis of the earth's atmosphere in the 3000 to 3600 Angstrom range
• Conduct ultraviolet spectroscopy of the sky at 304 and 60 Angstroms
• Map the infrared radiation of the earth from space, especially of the polar regions

NASA launched a Scout rocket with a nose cone of experimental heatshield material from Wallops Island, Va. The rocket was intentionally destroyed when it deviated from its course a few seconds after liftoff. The nose cone had been expected to reenter the atmosphere at 27,934 kilometers (18,600 miles) per hour to test the material's thermal performance under heating loads near those of a lunar reentry.

Suborbital 30 minute test of NASA SERT ion engine. The early part of the flight was dedicated to attempts to operate the cesium engine. The cesium engine could not be started because of a high-voltage electrical short circuit. The mercury engine was started about 14 minutes into the flight. This engine was successfully operated for 31 minutes with 53 high-voltage recycle vents which were handled by the fault protection system. Each of the recycle events was only a few seconds duration. Major results from the test were the first demonstration of an ion engine in space, demonstration of effective ion beam neutralization, no EMI effects on other spacecraft systems, and effective recovery from electrical breakdowns. Thrust was measured using three independent measuring systems, and there were no major differences between in-space and ground test performance.

Space craft engaged in investigation of spaceflight techniques and technology (US Cat A).

Space craft engaged in investigation of spaceflight techniques and technology (US Cat A).

Radiation data. Space craft engaged in investigation of spaceflight techniques and technology (US Cat A).

Maximum Speed - 6050 kph. Maximum Altitude - 32126 m.

Threw excess equipment out of spacecraft.

MSC Director Robert R. Gilruth informed MSFC Director Wernher von Braun that for the past two years MSC had studied the use of the mapping and survey system (M&SS) in conjunction with the Apollo program. - Additional details.

Kamanin and VVS officers spend more than two hours in a heated exchange with Mishin and his staff at OKB-1. Mishin is attacked for delays in completion of Soyuz; his demand that OKB-1 cosmonauts be trained in VVS zero-G aircraft without any agreement on this having been reached; the lack of work on spacesuits for the Soyuz flights by Severin; and above all his "illegal" training of his own cosmonauts. Mishin responds with wild attacks against the competence of Kamanin's cosmonauts, saying that his engineers could better guide a spacecraft to a docking than Kamanin's pilots. Finally things cool down, and Mishin agrees to submit to Kamanin a list of OKB-1 candidates for cosmonaut training within two to three days. Kamanin agrees to consider how they may be prepared for flight on a two-month schedule.

Later Kamanin's group visits Darevskiy at MAP and reviews the status of Soyuz trainer completion. He promises to have them completed by the end of August. Finally Kamanin confronts Komarov over statements he made in Japan. Komarov admits telling the world press that the Soviet Union will, at the scheduled time, fly an automated spacecraft around the moon and return it to earth, to be followed by a dog flight, then a manned circumlunar flight. Kamanin has already had the Central Committee and Soviet Ministers calling him about this unauthorised disclosure.

Prototype RORSAT hardware using chemical batteries in place of nuclear reactor. Lost on the 52nd revolution as a result of a possible failure in the chemical power units placed on board instead of the nuclear BES-5.

Retrieved micrometeoroid collector from Agena.

Maximum Speed - 5942 kph. Maximum Altitude - 25720 m.

At 8:50 a.m. July 20, Armstrong and Aldrin reentered the LM and checked out all systems. They performed a maneuver at 1:11 p.m. to separate the LM from the CSM and began the descent to the moon. The LM touched down on the moon at 4:18 p.m. EDT July 20. Armstrong reported to mission control at MSC, "Houston, Tranquillity Base here - the Eagle has landed." - Additional details.

High resolution photo reconnaissance satellite; returned film capsule; maneuverable.

Eight satellites launched by a single carrier rocket.

Apollo and Soyuz, now flying in separate orbits, conduct independent experiments prior to their return to earth. - Additional details.

Viking 1 reached Mars orbit June 19, 1976. Landing was planned for the US Bicentennial on July 4, but was delayed until a suitable landing site was located. The lander separated from the orbiter and touched down on the western slope of Chryse Planitia (the Plains of Gold) at 22.3 deg N latitude, 48 deg longitude.

Replaced Cosmos 665. Covered Oko constellation plane 2 - 323 degree longitude of ascending node.

High resolution photo reconnaissance satellite; returned film capsule; maneuverable.

Medium resolution photo surveillance; film capsule; also performed earth resources tasks. Investigation of the natural resources of the earth in the interests of various branches of the national economy of the USSR and international cooperation.

Military cartographic satellite; returned film capsule.

Military cartographic satellite; returned film capsule.

High resolution photo reconnaissance; returned film in two small SpK capsules during the mission and with the main capsule at completion of the mission.

Unmanned resupply vessel to Mir. Docked with Mir's front port on 22 Jul 1995 04:39:37 GMT. Undocked on 4 Sep 1995 05:09:53 GMT. Destroyed in reentry on 4 Sep 1995 08:58:55 GMT. Total free-flight time 2.22 days. Total docked time 44.02 days. Two Icons of Saint Anastasia were taken into space aboard the craft and transferred to the Mir station where they remained for about seven months. They were returned to earth, apparently aboard Soyuz TM-22, and later shown in diffent shrines around the world.

Molniya-3K military communications satellite and booster fourth stage entered a 214 x 420 km x 62.8 deg parking orbit at 0026 GMT. About half an orbit later, over the southeast Pacific, the NPO Lavochkin Block-ML fourth stage fired to put the payload into a 407 x 40831 km x 62.9 deg orbit. The Molniya-3K was an improved version of the Molniya-3 military satellite.

Launch delayed from April 26 and July 19 failure. The Russian Navy launched a three-stage R-29R Volna from the submarine Borisoglebsk in the Barents Sea on a suborbital flight. The payload was a joint project between the Planetary Society and NPO Lavochkin's Babakin center, and consisted of a solar sail deployment test with an inflatable reentry shield. The payload failed to separate from the final stage.